Twilight Chapter 3: Phenomenon Summary

How It All Goes Down

The next day, it's snowing outside and the school parking lot is slippery. So slippery, in fact, that Tyler loses control of his van and starts sliding toward Bella:

[...] the dark blue van [...] was skidding, tires locked and squealing against the breaks, spinning wildly across the ice of the parking lot. It was going to hit the back corner of my truck, and I was standing between them. I didn't even have time to close my eyes. (3.15)

Yet Edward Cullen somehow has time to dash across the school parking lot and push Bella out of the way.

Two long, white hands shot out protectively in front of me, and the van shuddered to a stop a foot from my face, the large hands fitting providentially into a deep dent in the side of the van's body. (3.17)

Bella, Tyler, and Edward go to the hospital after the accident. Edward doesn't even have a bruise on his body, despite having stopped Tyler's van with his bare hands.

But Bella confronts Edward, wanting to know how he managed to save her:

"You think I lifted a van off you?" [Edward's] tone questioned my sanity, but it only made me more suspicious. It was like a perfectly delivered line by a skilled actor. [...] "Nobody will believe that, you know." His voice held an edge of derision now. (3.119, 121)

Bella is furious, but gets nothing out him. However, that night, she dreams of Edward for the first time.